"All groups must lay down their weapons, the PKK must dissolve."
This was stated by Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Kurdish armed group he founded that has been involved in a conflict with the Turkish state since 1984 in which around 40 thousand people have died. The message was read during a press conference in Istanbul by politicians from the pro-Kurdish Dem, the third most represented party in the Turkish Parliament, who met him this morning in the prison on the island of Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara south of Istanbul, where he has been imprisoned since 1999. "There is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and implementation of a political system. Democratic consensus is the fundamental path," Ocalan stated in his message, entitled "A call for peace and a democratic society".
Ocalan cited the call for a new peace process launched by the party of the leader of the right-wing nationalist MHP, Devlet Bahceli, who in October had asked the PKK leader to dissolve his group in exchange for concessions on his regime of solitary confinement. "The call, together with the will expressed by Mr. President (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) and the positive responses of the other political parties to the well-known call, have created an atmosphere in which I ask to lay down arms and I take historical responsibility for this call," Ocalan said. There had already been periods of truce between the PKK and the Turkish army in the past, the last one between 2013 and 2015, but the Kurdish leader had never called for the dissolution of his group before today.
"If the terrorist organization accepts this appeal, lays down its arms, reunites and dissolves, Turkey will be freed from its chains," said Efkan Ala, vice president of President Erdogan's AKP party and Interior Minister between 2015 and 2016.
(Online Union)